


let's get lost

by raegrayson



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: F/M, happy birthday bethy i love u, vesperverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 22:57:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18353444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raegrayson/pseuds/raegrayson
Summary: Cor and Karma have a very good day.





	let's get lost

**Author's Note:**

> this is a birthday gift for my best friend and sister!! feat. her ffxv oc karma who is incredible i love her I LOVE U BETH U MEAN THE WORLD TO ME HERES SOME HETTIE SHIT

Cor stares down at the scrap of paper in his hand, then squints around at the world around him. He could come to Lestallum a million times and still get lost in the twisting side streets. Everything looks the same and the people of the city seem to be allergic to any kind of coherent signage. He’s here to gather some supplies for the Hunters, had offered when he was last passing through, but he can’t seem to find the first shop he needs. The heat has made him shed his jacket in his room at the Leville, sweat gathering along his neck as the sun beats down on him. 

“Cor?” comes a soft voice from over his shoulder and he turns to see Karma standing in the square behind him with her hands on her hips. The setting sun is lighting her from behind in a way that makes her soft pink hair seem to glow and Cor finds himself staring. “Are you okay?” 

“Karma,” Cor breathes and shakes himself. “I’m fine, just,” he pauses, and frowns. “A little lost.” 

Karma chuckles and walks over to him, plucking the list out of his hands. “Supplies?” she asks, scanning it. 

“Yeah, for the Hunters,” Cor says, hastening to follow when she begins walking away. “I swing by every once and a while to help out, and they asked if i could pick up some shipments for them.” 

Karma smiles at him, a warm and tender thing that makes Cor’s stomach flip in a way he’s far too old for. “You’re a good man, Cor Leonis,” she says, placing a gentle hand on his arm and squeezing. “How about I help you find what you’re looking for and you buy me dinner?” 

Cor swallows, but nods with a small smile of his own. “Sounds doable.” 

“What a romantic thing to say,” Karma laughs, before turning and beckoning him down a side alley he’d never noticed before. 

“Has this always been here?” he mutters, looking around at a row of colorful shop fronts. 

“You’re not great with this city, are you?” Karma says, slowing her power walk to come up level with him. 

“No,” Cor admits, gruffly. “I spent my childhood in the Citadel, either training or serving the Royals. I never had much occasion to journey outside the City, and if I did, I was guarding someone.” 

Karma hums under her breath as she listens. “I understand that,” she adds. “For a while, being a Glaive was my whole life. Everything I did was in service to the Crown, I never had any time for myself. I’m thankful to Vesper for breaking that cycle and forcing me to make friends.” At the mention of Vesper, Cor makes an annoyed face, which makes Karma laugh. “Don’t be like that, you like him, I know you do.” 

“He’s fine, he’s just,” Cor waves a hand. 

“Gay?” Karma offers.

“Annoying,” Cor finishes, glaring at her. “I don’t care that he’s gay, he’s just irritating.” 

“He can be, a bit,” Karma says, nodding. “But that’s what makes him charming.” 

“I guess,” Cor grumbles and Karma laughs again. 

“Up here,” she says, laughter still sparkling in her voice as she leads him towards a small shop front with a sign hanging over it which displays a single ornate dagger and nothing else. Cor steps up and asks after the Hunter’s shipment of weapons and directs the shop owner to load them into the truck waiting outside the town. Karma is standing across the alley at a stall set up that’s selling cheap jewelry, eyeing an ostentatious sunflower pendant suspended on a silver chain. As he comes up behind her, she sets it down and turns to smile at him. 

“All set?” she asks. 

“Yeah,” he says. 

“Onto the next one, then!” she says, threading her arm through his and smiling up at him. 

The heat of the day has forced Karma out of her heavy Glaive uniform, the white coat stowed away somewhere leaving her in only a pale yellow tank top and her standard issue pants. She’s swapped the clunky boots for strappy sandals and she looks less like a fearsome warrior and more like the kind of woman who lived a life of simple pleasures. Cor knows better, of course, than to forget what she really is, a Glaive powerful and respected enough to have her own special uniform, that the soft sway of her hips belies the deadly grace she wields on the battlefield. Her [weapon] is just a second’s summon away and knowing the strength she possesses under that smiling face does little to distract Cor from the bead of sweat that’s rolling down her neck. 

“It’s here,” Karma says, steering him around the corner and snapping him out of his wandering thoughts. A new shop front is tucked between two bright red doors and displays a simple helmet on its sign. Karma checks her phone while Cor places his order, and Cor can hear her giggle. 

“What’s so funny?” he asks as he turns around and she flashes her phone at him, displaying a picture of Vesper asleep with various graffiti across his face, with the caption, ‘hes got a senate meeting in half an hour LOL’. The absurdity of it startles a chuckle out of Cor and Karma gasps. 

“Damn,” she says.

“What?”

“The Immortal laughed and I didn’t take a picture,” she replies, sighing dramatically and placing a hand against her forehead. 

Cor rolls his eyes. “I laugh!” 

“Oh, really? Show me,” Karma challenges him, hands on her hips and her head cocked to the side. When Cor flounders, staring at her with a caught expression, she huffs out a breath. With a foolish noise, she presses her hands to her cheeks and crosses her eyes, sticking her tongue out of her squished up mouth and screwing up her eyebrows. The expression is so ridiculous and endearing that Cor does laugh then, a genuine sound ringing out in the alley and it makes Karma beam at him. “I guess you do,” she says, pleased. 

“Maybe you just bring it out in me,” he replies, letting a smile linger on his face as he gazes at her. Her cheeks heat, seemingly caught off guard by the sentiment and she smiles back, holding out her hand for him to take. 

“One more stop, yeah?” she asks, threading their fingers together. 

Cor nods. “Then, I believe I owe you dinner.” 

“Hell yeah you do,” Karma says, winking at him. “And I’m not a cheap date.” 

Privately, Cor thinks that Karma spends too much time with Vesper, but outwardly he just gives her a considering nod. “I’ll make sure to pick someplace worthy of such a dinner partner.” 

\--

After they round up the final shipment for the Hunters at the market, Karma begs off back to her apartment, claiming she would like to freshen up before dinner. Cor tells her to meet him at the restaurant in the Leville, the nicest place in Lestallum. Cor fiddles around his hotel room for a while, trying to decide if he should try to improve his appearance. He didn’t bring any fancy clothes, nor does he know enough about fashion to figure out how to make himself look any nicer, but he wants to do right by Karma. She had said ‘date’, right? They’ve danced around flirtations for a while now and maybe this is it. 

He sends a text to Vesper, asking for tips. In typical Vesper fashion, the man replies almost instantly, even though Cor is almost positive he’s in a Senate meeting, asking for clarification. It takes about fifteen minutes of coaching from Vesper for Cor to marshal himself into something approaching date-ready and he begs down to the market to buy a few of Karma’s favorite flowers at Vesper’s insistence. (Not that he had known what pink camellias were when Vesper had first suggested it, he’d had to send a few pictures for Cor’s reference.) 

Cor finds himself waiting at the entrance to the Leville with something approaching nerves crawling across his skin. It’s absurd, he thinks, that he had faced down demi-gods and monsters but the idea of spending a romantic evening with a woman who brings light to his life has his hands twitching helplessly. 

Karma arrives soon and sets his nerves at ease. She’s changed her toned down uniform out for a simple black skirt and loose-fitting, soft-colored crop top. She’s piled her hair up in a messy bun on top of her head and as she grows closer, he can see a long-chained necklace with a sword-shaped pendant dangling from her neck. He had been worried she would show up in a fancy dress and a full face of makeup, making him look foolish in his simple clothes, but he realizes how baseless that worry was when he sees she’s still wearing sturdy combat boots under her skirt. Always vigilant, like a proper Glaive. 

“You look beautiful,” he tells her when she comes to stand beside him. 

She flushes, pleased, and quirks an eyebrow at him. “You look pretty good yourself, Marshal.” After a moment of fond eye contact, she points at the camellias in his hand and asks, “Are those for me?”

Cor starts and glances between Karma and the flowers for a second before holding them out to her and saying, “Oh, yes, of course. I’m told they’re your favorite.” 

“They are!” she chirps, taking the flowers and pressing her face into them. “They’re beautiful, Cor, thank you.” 

_ As beautiful as you _ , Cor thinks, but can’t quite bring himself to say it, even if it’s true. Instead, he offers her his arm and leads her towards the table he had reserved on the patio. There’s a candle already lit, beside the vase waiting to hold her flowers and Cor pulls out her chair before sitting himself. The atmosphere is nicer than the street food available elsewhere in the city, but it’s by no means fancy and the nerves finally smooth and settle. A nice meal with a beautiful woman, there’s no reason for him to be so nervous. 

It’s hard to be anxious when he meets Karma’s gaze over the flickering of the candle light. 

They talk easily of many things during their meal. Cor tells stories of his time accompanying King Regis across the land and Karma chuckles and replies with tales of her childhood, or of her time with the Glaive. He learns that she’s from Tenebrae, originally, like he has suspected all along, and he enjoys hearing her tell of her time living there. She’s vague about some details and there’s a huge gap in the tales she’s telling him, but he doesn’t press. He knows all too well what it’s like to keep secrets. 

They stay at the table until the candle burns down and the wait staff come to gently shoo them from the closing establishment. At some point during the meal, Cor’s hand had traveled, lacing his fingers with Karma’s loosely on the table top, and he doesn’t drop the hand even as they pay and leave. Her hand is smaller than his, but just a rough with calluses and use and it comforts him to know that his own scars won’t scare her away. 

They wander the streets of Lestallum slowly. Although he has an early start tomorrow to get back to the Hunters with their supplies, he’s hesitant to let the night end. Karma’s company is, as always, a balm on his soul and he’s loathe to part with her before he has to. They pass the stall from earlier, the one with the sunflower necklace and Cor has an idea. “Wait here,” he tells Karma and then ducks down the street to the stall in question. The necklace is still there, thankfully, and he forks over a few gil before heading back to where Karma is waiting with an arched eyebrow. “Turn around.” 

She obliges with a curious expression and Cor carefully fastens the chain around her neck. She glances down and laughs when she sees her gift, touching it gently with her other hand on his upper arm. “Oh, Cor, thank you, this is very sweet,” she tells him, reaching up to cup his cheek, her warm gaze holding his own. Cor can’t help himself in this moment and before he realizes it, he’s leaning in to press his lips to hers. She hums in surprise, but then she’s kissing him back, her arm winding around his neck as she presses herself close to him. 

He should be worried about the way he loses his sense in the feel of her, so easily he could be caught unawares with Karma pressed up against him, but he can’t bring himself to care as he settles his hands on her hips and deepens the kiss. It feels like a long time coming, so many days spent wondering idly if her lips are as soft as they look, and Cor relishes the sensation. 

“And he can kiss, too,” she says as she pulls back, breathless and shining with fondness. 

“When he wants to,” Cor replies, taking her hand again. “It’s getting late.”

She hums. “I suppose it is. Walk me home?” 

“Lead the way.” 

Karma’s apartment isn’t far and they spend the walk enjoying each other’s silent company. It’s a street level room, apparently, as Karma stops in front of a green door to smile at him. “Thank you, Cor, for tonight,” she says. 

“I should be thanking you,” he replies. “I don’t...get to do stuff like this a lot.” 

“We should do it again,” she says, turning to unlock the door. Cor frowns as she steps inside without a goodbye, but she glances coyly over her shoulder. “Are you coming?”

Cor should go back to his hotel room, he knows, and rest for tomorrow, but he’s having a hard time convincing himself of this when Karma is right there, inviting him in for….well, he’s not sure what, maybe it’s just coffee. 

_ Okay _ , he thinks ten minutes later with his head between her thighs as she quakes above him.  _ Not coffee _ . The taste of her on his tongue is heady but her desperate gasps and the futile twitch of her hips has him feeling drunk as he licks deeper, faster, feeling her pleasure mounting.  _ Just like riding a bike _ , he thinks as a few more skillful swipes send her tumbling over the edge with a breathless shout and he kisses up her body to capture her mouth again. Her hands travel across his body and one wraps firmly around his cock as they kiss, moving expertly in a way that has him groaning into her mouth. His orgasm hits him like a punch and leaves him shuddering against her and she kisses him through it. 

They lay together, recovering, breathing each other in. Cor presses kisses into her hair and she hums against his chest. After a while, Cor says, “I really need to go.”

“Boo,” Karma murmurs, pulling back to pout at him. “I can think of lots more fun we can have.” 

Cor groans. “Next time,” he promises, kissing her swiftly before he stands to rinse himself off and begin putting himself back together. 

“I’ll hold you to that,” she says, eyes watching him hungrily. 

He stands over the bed, staring down at her, filled with an indescribable fondness. “Karma.” 

“Hm?”

“You’re amazing.” 

 


End file.
